Negative pressure wound therapy enhances wound healing in multiple ways, including, but not limited to, micro-stimulation of granulation, macro-mechanical holding, stimulation of blood flow, reduction of edema, and removal of healing inhibitory enzymes and wound contaminants. One consequence of providing the negative pressure therapy is a need to collect and remove the drainage. It is sometimes the case that severe wounds leak significant amounts of byproduct material. It is advantageous to remove the wound leakage material or wound byproduct material via a vacuum or negative pressure system. It is typical that negative pressure wound dressings are changed one to four times a week. However, the collection canister employed may need to be changed more or less often, depending on the amount of wound leakage material drainage amounts, which differs greatly from wound to wound.
In the wound treatment art, a vacuum or negative pressure source is in contact with a wound via a vacuum tube line, a wound tape material making contact between the wound and the vacuum tube line, and a reservoir canister to hold the byproduct material.
Often the reservoir canister is attached to the negative pressure system. The reservoir has to be monitored such that byproduct material, typically a liquid, does not flow into the mechanical vacuum or negative pressure device. The reservoir canister often encompasses a large portion of the vacuum or negative pressure device. The combination of reservoir canister and vacuum device is often too bulky and cumbersome to be carried easily by the patient during activities of daily living. Such bulky vacuum units make the patient less inclined to complete a treatment regimen.
Other means of removing wound leakage material include applying an absorbent material next to the wound. Once the absorbent material has reached saturation of wound leakage material, the absorbent material must be removed. Another absorbent material must be placed next to the wound to further remove wound leakage material until the wound is a fully drained. The process of redressing a wound to further eliminate wound leakage material is often messy and involves the use of additional materials. Patients are most often unable or unwilling to undertake the required dressing changes. If dressing is not changed properly, there is an elevated risk of infection and wound healing complication for the patient.
Both of the methods described above, as well as others, require significant amounts of material, equipment or effort to effectively drain a healing wound.